Make sure your passwords are protecting you

The UK’s fraud prevention service, CIFAS has reported a 5% rise in the overall level of fraud compared with 2011. Much of this increase came from account takeover fraud which saw cases go up by 53% on the previous year.   

Are your passwords protecting you?

For the vast majority of account takeovers, the fraudster will need to have gained specific information about you, such as your online log in and password.  Take a look at our tips below to make sure that your passwords are working to protect your identity and not giving fraudsters the tools they need to access your accounts.

Tip 1: Sounds obvious, but keep your passwords safe! 

No reputable company would ever ask you to email your password – if you do get this type of request then treat it with caution.

Don’t tell people your passwords or write them down for people to find and use.

Tip 2: Choose a strong password

Tempting as it might be, don’t use your birthday or pet’s name.  These are easy to work out.

Try to use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.

Your password should be at least 8 characters long – these will be harder to guess or break.

Tip 3: Change your passwords regularly

Tip 4: For more information visit GetSafeOnline.

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Be Cyber Savvy this Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day inspires thoughts of love and romance all around the world.  Sadly, for some, February 14th may not be the hearts and flowers filled day they had hoped for… Whether you’re looking for love or looking out for your loved ones, our top tips on spotting dating fraud are definitely worth a read!

With more and more people using the internet to find that special someone, it is increasingly important to be cyber-savvy when looking for love. 

A recent study by Leicester University revealed that approximately 230,000 Britons may have fallen victim of an online dating scam.  Typically, criminals will initiate a relationship through an online dating site, often creating a glamorous persona – film star looks, grand titles and high flying jobs.  Once they have gained their victim’s trust they will create reasons to request large sums of money – perhaps to visit them or to pay hospital bills.  In the worst cases, fraudsters will use information gained about their victim over the course of their ‘relationship’ to blackmail them. Professor Monica Whitty, who led the study said ‘It is our view that the trauma caused by this scam is worse than any other, because of the ‘double hit’ experienced by the victims – loss of monies and a ‘romantic relationship’.

Don’t be put off! With 1 in 5 relationships now starting online, you too can find love safely by looking out for the following tell-tale signs:

 Your new love looks like a super model but always finds excuses not to meet

  • They ask lots of questions about you but reveal nothing about themselves – allowing them to use your information to apply for credit in the future
  • They rarely use your name, usually calling you by a pet name.
  • Finally, perhaps the biggest giveaway – they promise you great wealth in the future but in the meantime ask you to send them large sums of money or request your card details to clear a one off debt.

Remember that with ProtectMyID membership your Experian credit report will be monitored for changes and you will be alerted to any sign of identity fraud. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud, then ProtectMyID’s Fraud Resolution Assistance will ensure a dedicated caseworker will work with you to help you sort everything out from start to finish.

Visit us on Facebook to watch some Ex-Factor questions being answered, and join us there between 12 and 3 on Valentine’s Day when our experts will be doing a live Q and A on the subject of how past relationships can affect your credit rating.

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His name is Rio, and his credit card’s declined

It’s not been a great summer for Rio Ferdinand – axed from England’s Euro 2012 squad, and now a victim of credit card fraud after his card’s details were used in an attempted fraudulent transaction. 

The 33-year-old Manchester United defender took to Twitter to vent his fury after he tried and failed to use his credit card in a shop after it was declined.

‘That embarrassing moment when ya Credit card gets DECLINED….epic fail!’ he told his three million Twitter followers.

The former England skipper was none too pleased at what had happened, particularly as he is a customer of the exclusive bank Coutts, best-known for having HM the Queen as their most famous customer, adding ‘Hahahaha! The Queen’s bank too, anyone got her number, I’m livid!’

He later went on to reveal that his card had now been cancelled as a fraudulent – or ‘dodgy’ as he called it – attempt to use it had been found.

‘The bank said a FRAUD tried to make a ‘dodgy’ transaction in Harrogate with my card details so they cancelled the card! We are after U FRAUD!’

Remember that with ProtectMyID membership your credit report will be monitored for changes and you will be alerted to any sign of identity fraud. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud, then ProtectMyID’s Fraud Resolution Assistance will ensure a dedicated caseworker will work with you to help you sort everything out from start to finish.

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Whose fault is fraud? Yours – say the banks

If you’ve become a victim of fraud, you would expect that when the dust settles you would not end up out of pocket.

Whether it was an account being hacked and your card and PIN details being intercepted, or you had your credit and bank cards stolen, you would expect your losses and any money withdrawn to be refunded.

Yet reports this month have suggested that there are growing suggestions that some banks are starting to refuse refunds in some cases – despite rules in place that are there to protect the consumer.

Banks are allowed to refund a customer if he or she has acted ‘fraudulently’ or has been ‘grossly negligent’, yet some reports have suggested that many are taking a harder line and insisting on proof that cannot easily be given.

Even the common policy for many people of writing down a heavily disguised password reminder –obvious to only the holder(s) – could be enough for some banks to reject claims. To see some examples of what some banks are doing, check out The Guardian’s report from earlier this month.

Remember that with ProtectMyID membership your credit report will be monitored for changes and you will be alerted to any sign of identity fraud. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud, then ProtectMyID’s Fraud Resolution Assistance will ensure a dedicated caseworker will work with you to help you sort everything out from start to finish.

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Police foil websites offering credit card info for sale

A huge global police operation has resulted in the removal of dozens of websites that were offering credit card information for sale.

A two-year worldwide investigation led to a series of raids in Australia, Europe, the UK and the USA, resulting in the arrest of two Britons and a Macedonian, and the shutdown of 36 sites, said Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

Some credit card and bank account details were being sold for as little as £2 – and each victim would have been utterly oblivious to the trade going on using their data and details.

Lee Miles, the head of Soca’s cyber crime unit, said: [1]“Criminals are turning over vast volumes of these cards. We must match the criminals – it’s an arms race.

“They are industrialising their processes and likewise we have to industrialise our processes to match them.”

It is thought that in many cases the brains behind some of these operations are ‘bedroom’ hackers, recruited into the pay of criminal gangs to create the malware necessary to carry out their fraud.

Another factor that makes it hard for websites to be policed is that many internet service providers allow people to register websites anonymously, which makes them much harder to trace.

Remember that with ProtectMyID membership your credit report will be monitored for changes and you will be alerted to any sign of identity fraud. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud, then ProtectMyID’s Fraud Resolution Assistance will ensure a dedicated caseworker will work with you to help you sort everything out from start to finish.


[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17851257

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It can happen to anyone…

The US military hasn’t had the best press so far this year. And now one of their number has been arrested for a foiled attempt to steal the identity of one of the world’s richest men in what has been described as a ‘simple scam’.

Brandon Lee Price, a 28-year-old US Army soldier who went AWOL and is wanted as a deserter, is accused of impersonating billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to successfully get access to his bank account.

Having altered the address on Allen’s account, he was able to get a debit card in Allen’s name sent to an address in Pittsburgh, in Price’s home state of Pennsylvania.

FBI reports allege that after having changed the address on the billionaire’s account, Price waited a few days before reporting the card as lost and asking for a new one to be sent to him.

Price is subsequently said to have allegedly used the account for personal payments on a Armed Forces Bank account, to attempt to take out $15,000, as well as various mundane personal expenses. In no time at all the bank’s suspicions were aroused, the police stepped in, and he was arrested on March 2 and charged with wire fraud and bank fraud.

Allen, who has an estimated net worth of $14.2 billion, owns NFL and NBA sports teams as well as one of the world’s biggest yachts, the Octopus, at $250m. He is also renowned for his philanthropy and donations to charitable causes.

Remember that with ProtectMyID membership your credit report will be monitored for changes and you will be alerted to any sign of identity fraud. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud, then ProtectMyID’s Fraud Resolution Assistance will ensure a dedicated caseworker will work with you to help you sort everything out from start to finish.

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The time wasted over ID Fraud can hurt as much as any financial loss

Research from CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service, has revealed that it is not just financial losses that affects victims of fraud – but that it is actually the time taken to sort out the mess that can have the most devastating impact on victims.

When asked the question  ‘What is the worst side effect for victims of fraud?’, respondents were given a choice of three responses, based upon the three most common themes raised by victims of fraud who answered a previous CIFAS online survey.

Over 41% of respondents said ‘Time lost trying to clear up the mess’, with almost 31% answering ‘Trust in people/institutions damaged’ and a further 27% citing ‘Financial impact and loss’.

CIFAS Communications Manager, Richard Hurley, said: “For victims of fraud, the financial loss is obviously a very real one. Lenders and suppliers, however, are in most cases under an obligation to refund any losses or debts taken out in an innocent party’s name. This means that such losses are actually temporary.

 “What is interesting is that respondents to this poll have overwhelmingly emphasised this by confirming that the real trauma is the impact upon the fraud victims’ time, as they try to untangle themselves from the mess caused by a fraudster.”

Untangling the mess left by ID theft is one thing – losing trust is another.  For most victims, the methods fraudsters used to get the details they needed in order to impersonate them or to hijack an existing account remains unknown. With over 121,500 individual cases of impersonation or account takeover recorded in 2011[1], the scale of the problem cannot be over-estimated.

You can take some precautions against ID Fraud and the time it takes to clear it up:

-          Never give your identity details or financial information over the phone to someone calling unexpectedly even if it is the bank/company you use: especially if it is one you have never used.

-          Destroy or shred any documentation you no longer need that an ID fraudster could use, including bank or credit card statements, cheque book stubs and so on.

-          By monitoring your credit report you can give yourself an extra form of protection against the risk of ID fraud, by getting alerts of any changes to your credit report.

Remember that with ProtectMyID membership you will be alerted to any sign of identity fraud and your credit report will be monitored for changes. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud, then ProtectMyID’s Fraud resolution assistance will ensure a dedicated caseworker will work with you to help you sort everything out from start to finish.


[1] CIFAS figures, March 2012

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Here’s … Joao?

The use of fake ID is a no laughing matter, but you have to wonder sometimes at some of the methods used by would-be fraudsters.

Not content with trying to produce forged documents belonging to any other person, one Brazilian man took it a stage further by trying to pass himself as Hollywood legend Jack Nicholson.

41-year-old Ricardo Sergio Freire de Barros, from the north-eastern city of Recife, used a 2003 photograph of the Batman and Shining star on his fake documents.

Police later released a copy of the forged document which shows a photo of Nicholson’s face next to the signature of “Joao Pedro dos Santos” and a fingerprint.

Barros, who has little if any resemblance to Jack Nicholson, was later charged with both using false documents, carrying ID belonging to other people, and forgery.

“The document with the photo of the actor and other false identification were used to start a fictitious company and with it, also open a bank account,” said chief investigator Erivaldo Guerra.

“That way, he would use the limits on the checks and the credit cards to steal money.” 

Barros had already been under investigation for three months, for fraudulent activity, when he was arrested.

Of course, ID fraud can happen to anyone – and even the dimmest fraudsters would usually realise that it’s best not to use a photograph of someone extremely famous.

Remember that with ProtectMyID membership you will be alerted to any sign of identity fraud and your credit report will be monitored for changes. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud, then ProtectMyID’s Fraud resolution assistance will ensure a dedicated caseworker will work with you to help you sort everything out from start to finish.

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Fraud hit record levels – but blame the recession

Has Britain’s economic malaise contributed to the rise in fraud?

The latest analysis of fraud trends during 2011 by CIFAS – the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service – has revealed a disturbing 9% increase in the overall level of fraud, when compared with the previous year, with further key findings presenting a stark picture of the economic crime landscape in the UK.

Over 236,500 frauds were identified during 2011 by CIFAS members, the highest number ever recorded – and over 120,000 of those were individual cases with an identifiable victim. The continued blight of identity fraud accounted for over 113,000 fraud cases (a 10% increase from 2010 levels and representing 48% of all frauds).

There was an 18% surge in facility takeover fraud (where a fraudster gains access and fraudulently uses a victim’s account such as a credit card, bank account or mobile phone), meaning that this type of fraud has rocketed by nearly 300% in just five years.  In addition, 2011 saw a 13% rise in misuse of facility fraud (where an account, policy or other facility has been legitimately obtained but is later used fraudulently).

Richard Hurley, CIFAS Communications Manager, says: “It is vitally important to remember that fraud and economic crime are offences with a range of motivations. Many of these frauds will undoubtedly be committed by organised criminal elements, but many will also be committed by people who seemingly feel that their circumstances leave them no choice.

“Equally, financial desperation leaves many susceptible to potential scammers. Untangling the mess that fraud causes, irrespective of motivation, however, is time-consuming, damaging and costly to businesses, to the public sector and to individuals. Rather than being the ‘victimless crime’ it is sometimes heralded as, fraud actually makes victims of us all.”

Remember that with ProtectMyID membership you will be alerted to any sign of identity fraud and your credit report will be monitored for changes. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud, then ProtectMyID’s Fraud resolution assistance will ensure a dedicated caseworker will work with you to help you sort everything out from start to finish.

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When the fake tenant strikes

It’s bad enough when you share a flat with someone you are not sure whether or not to trust – but what if that person doesn’t even exist?

 A new threat that could affect tenants in apartment blocks is a scam in which fake tenants ‘rent’ out flats in blocks where post is delivered and left in communal areas. The ‘tenant’ – who will stay no longer than a few days – then goes through the real occupants’ post, looking for ID to steal with which to set up fraudulent credit cards and bank accounts. 

The agents or the landlords would probably have suspected nothing – the ‘phoney tenant’ will have probably produced all the ID checks and references necessary and paid rent and deposits upfront – but very likely with a stolen identity. 

One example, described here, led to a fraud being uncovered only after a police raid found a vast number of expensive items, including iPads and iPhones, bought using stolen credit and debit cards. They also found a set of keys for a flat ten miles away – the fake tenant had succeeded in stealing the identities of three of the six occupants in the block concerned. 

The agents were later informed that the ‘tenant’ had paid for his deposit & rent via a stolen debit card, and that the individual defrauded wanted their money refunded. 

So what can be done to help prevent this? Insurance specialist Michael Portman says: “Tenant fraud is a growing problem for agents and landlords alike. It is essential that agents have a checklist for new tenants that includes obtaining ID documents and proof of current residency at an early stage of the tenancy application.” Experian’s Check My Tenant service is a useful source for  helping landlords verify their tenant.

And for tenants, make sure you check your bank and credit card statements frequently so you can act quickly if you see anything unusual or irregular. With ProtectMyID membership you will be alerted to any signs of identity fraud, and get a dedicated expert to help you resolve any fraud issues should you have any.

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